Compute Comparison
vs
All providers →
Alibaba CloudvsSambaNova Cloud

Alibaba Cloud vs SambaNova Cloud: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of Alibaba Cloud and SambaNova Cloud — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.

Alibaba Cloud

Qwen3 — 235B MoE open-weight frontier model with hybrid thinking and 1M context

Alibaba Cloud's Qwen model family is one of the most capable open-weight model lineups available. Qwen3-235B is a 235-billion-parameter MoE model that rivals GPT-5.6 Sol on reasoning benchmarks, with open weights available for self-hosting. The 2026 lineup adds hybrid thinking mode (toggling between fast and deep chain-of-thought), a 1M-token context window on Qwen-Long, and Qwen3-VL for vision-language tasks. The API is available via Alibaba's DashScope platform.

CodingReasoningMultilingualVisionLong-contextCost-sensitive workloadsSelf-hosted inference
Proprietary modelsHosts open weights

SambaNova Cloud

High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama

SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.

High-throughput inferenceCost-sensitive workloadsOpen-weight models
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Key metric comparison

Alibaba Cloud
SambaNova Cloud
Cheapest input ($/1M)

—

—

Cheapest output ($/1M)

—

—

Peak throughput

—

—

Best latency (TTFT)

—

—

Intelligence score

—

—

Context window

—

—

Live token pricing

Strengths and weaknesses

Alibaba Cloud

Qwen3-235B rivals GPT-5.6 Sol on reasoning benchmarks — open-weight
Hybrid thinking mode: toggle between fast responses and deep chain-of-thought
1M-token context window on Qwen-Long
Qwen3-VL for vision-language tasks including OCR and document understanding
Open-weight models available for self-hosting on any GPU cloud
Competitive pricing — check alibabacloud.com for current rates
API primarily optimised for Asian markets — latency may be higher in US/EU
Less third-party integration support than OpenAI
Documentation quality varies by model version

SambaNova Cloud

Proprietary RDU chips deliver very high throughput — 800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b
Competitive pricing on gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59 per 1M)
Prompt caching on GLM-5.3 (cached input at $0.14/1M)
Strong open-weight model catalog: Llama, DeepSeek, Gemma, MiniMax
Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
RDU architecture may behave differently from GPU inference for some workloads

Key differentiators

Alibaba Cloud

Qwen3-235B is a frontier-class open-weight MoE model with hybrid thinking mode — matching closed frontier models on reasoning benchmarks while being fully self-hostable.

SambaNova Cloud

Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.

Frequently asked questions

Alibaba Cloud FAQs

What is the Qwen3 model family?

Qwen3 is Alibaba's latest generation of LLMs, ranging from Qwen3-0.6B (edge/mobile) to Qwen3-235B (frontier MoE). All Qwen3 models support hybrid thinking mode — toggling between fast responses and deep chain-of-thought reasoning on demand.

What is Qwen3 hybrid thinking mode?

Hybrid thinking mode lets you control whether the model uses fast direct responses or deep chain-of-thought reasoning per request. This is unique among open-weight models and allows cost/quality trade-offs at inference time.

Are Qwen3 models open-weight?

Yes. All Qwen3 models including the 235B MoE are released under open licenses and available on Hugging Face. This makes them popular for self-hosted deployments where data privacy or cost control is a priority.

SambaNova Cloud FAQs

What makes SambaNova Cloud different?

SambaNova runs inference on its own Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips rather than NVIDIA GPUs. This delivers very high throughput — over 800 tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b — at competitive per-token rates.

What models does SambaNova Cloud offer?

As of October 2026: gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59), GLM-5.3 ($1.40/$4.40, cached $0.14), MiniMax-M3 ($0.60/$2.40, cached $0.06), DeepSeek-V3.2 ($3.00/$4.50), Meta-Llama-3.3-70B ($0.60/$1.20), and Gemma 4 31B ($0.38/$1.15). See cloud.sambanova.ai/plans/pricing for current rates.

Does SambaNova offer prompt caching?

Yes, on GLM-5.3 (cached input $0.14/1M vs $1.40/1M standard) and MiniMax-M3 (cached input $0.06/1M vs $0.60/1M standard).

Provider resources

Alibaba Cloud

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

SambaNova Cloud

Provider page
Website
Pricing

Alibaba Cloud — Qwen3 — 235B MoE open-weight frontier model with hybrid thinking and 1M context

Alibaba Cloud's Qwen model family is one of the most capable open-weight model lineups available. Qwen3-235B is a 235-billion-parameter MoE model that rivals GPT-5.6 Sol on reasoning benchmarks, with open weights available for self-hosting. The 2026 lineup adds hybrid thinking mode (toggling between fast and deep chain-of-thought), a 1M-token context window on Qwen-Long, and Qwen3-VL for vision-language tasks. The API is available via Alibaba's DashScope platform.

Qwen3-235B is a frontier-class open-weight MoE model with hybrid thinking mode — matching closed frontier models on reasoning benchmarks while being fully self-hostable.

SambaNova Cloud — High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama

SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.

Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.

Key strengths compared

Alibaba Cloud

  • Qwen3-235B rivals GPT-5.6 Sol on reasoning benchmarks — open-weight
  • Hybrid thinking mode: toggle between fast responses and deep chain-of-thought
  • 1M-token context window on Qwen-Long
  • API primarily optimised for Asian markets — latency may be higher in US/EU
  • Less third-party integration support than OpenAI

SambaNova Cloud

  • Proprietary RDU chips deliver very high throughput — 800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b
  • Competitive pricing on gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59 per 1M)
  • Prompt caching on GLM-5.3 (cached input at $0.14/1M)
  • Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
  • No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform

Key weaknesses compared

Alibaba Cloud

  • API primarily optimised for Asian markets — latency may be higher in US/EU
  • Less third-party integration support than OpenAI
  • Documentation quality varies by model version

SambaNova Cloud

  • Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
  • No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
  • RDU architecture may behave differently from GPU inference for some workloads

Provider category context

Alibaba Cloud is a frontier lab, founded in 2009 (AI division 2023). SambaNova Cloud is a inference api, founded in 2017. Alibaba Cloud as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. SambaNova Cloud as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers but without access to proprietary frontier models.

How to choose between them

Choose Alibaba Cloud if you need qwen3-235b rivals gpt-5.6 sol on reasoning benchmarks — open-weight. Choose SambaNova Cloud if you need High-throughput inference. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.